Saturday, March 19, 2011

In and around the 20-kilometre exclusion zone surrounding the stricken plant, those without means of escape are being left to suffer.

In one case, 128 people were found by Japanese Self-Defence Force troops, abandoned by medical staff in their hospital 10 kilometres from the plant. Most were comatose and 14 later died. The living were moved to a makeshift ward at a nearby school gym, but conditions are scarcely better.

A Fukushima government official said authorities had no better place to send people, and no way to move them to safety. "We feel very helpless," Chue Inamura said. "The condition at the gymnasium was horrible. No running water, no medicine and very, very little food."

Millions of people are living without running water or power in temperatures that fall below freezing overnight. It is estimated half a million homes are without power in Japan's north and 2.5 million have no access to water.